Although the inventions disclosed in my prior pending applications mentioned above perform perfectly well for their intended purposes, the apparatus shown in Ser. Nos. 865,745 and 049,861 is designed not only for the purpose of analysing the composition of soil contaminants but also for treating the soil, if necessary. In general, this results in apparatus which is larger and slower than need be for preliminary site testing where it is desirable to provide analytical results in real time.
The inventions disclosed in Ser. No. 093,305 are intended for site analysis by gathering physically undisturbed samples of soil rather than for making a real time analysis of the contaminant content by liberating volatiles from the soil which are then analysed at the surface.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for liberating volatile gases from sub-surface soil locations which more quickly conducts the volatiles to the surface to enable analysis of such gases to determine the soil contents in real time. An additional object of the invention is to provide improved treatment methods and apparatus designed to ensure that no contamination of adjacent soil blocks takes place during treatment of the currently treated block or blocks.